Fifth place finish for young beach volleyballers
17th January 2009The young University of Bath pairing of Jake Sheaf and Adam Smith finished fifth in the beach volleyball competition at the Australia Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney today (Friday).
The pair won one and lost one of their opening matches at the pool phase of the competition yesterday (Thursday).
Returning to action at Maroubra beach in their final pool game this morning, they went down to the Australian pairing of Patrick Mead and Robert Reeves.
The British pair started well, taking the opening set 22-20, but the Aussies recovered to level up by winning the second set 16-21 and then took the decider 11-15.
That meant the Team GB pair missed out on a place in the semis. Instead they faced a fifth/sixth place play-off against another Australian pair in the shape of Hamish Moore and Corey Leathart.
The University of Bath pair were determined to end their campaign on a high note and won the contest by two sets to nil, taking the first 21-14 and the second 21-17.
Sheaf and Smith are both studying Sports Performance at the University of Bath.